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What's a Wreck?

A Cake Wreck is any cake that is unintentionally sad, silly, creepy, inappropriate - you name it. A Wreck is not necessarily a poorly-made cake; it's simply one I find funny, for any of a number of reasons. Anyone who has ever smeared frosting on a baked good has made a Wreck at one time or another, so I'm not here to vilify decorators: Cake Wrecks is just about finding the funny in unexpected, sugar-filled places.

I suggested recently on Facebook that someone try tinting cotton candy to make the smoke monster. I've since been told (by much wiser bakers than I) that any spray or colorant would make the cotton candy dissolve on contact. Drat. On the bright side, though, you can still do some cool things with cotton balls:

Nice job, Susannah T.!

As amazing as all of these are, I think this last one has to be my favorite. Check out what Laura M. made for her friend Tracy's birthday:

Plus, look closely: Can you spot the carrot jockey filling in for baby Aaron?

That is SO AWESOME. Thanks, Laura.

And thanks also to everyone else who submitted their LOST creations. I'm sorry if I didn't include yours here; I had a lot to choose from, so I tried to go with the most original designs. If you haven't sent yours in yet, though, please do! I may do a follow-up post in the future.

UPDATE: Of course I didn't forget the LOST cake Ace of Cakes made! I just already posted it last year. You can see it here along with some nice detail and cast shots.

Reader Comments (79)

I'm so excited that my chocolate-painted character cake was included in this LOST cake retrospective, and relieved that it wasn't posted on another day of the week! Now please excuse me, I have to go prepare for the big evening of trying to figure out what the heck has been going on for the last six years.

Everyone else seems to be saying that you could color the cotton candy before making it, but I think that it could look good if you used Petal Dust made by Luster Dust. There is a charcoal color and then you could have shading! It's like edible pastels :)

Well, sure. Liquid food colors and gel food colors would cause cotton candy to dissolve, but there is no reason to believe that powdered food colors would do the same. In fact, I would argue that under no circumstances would powdered food colors - or luster dust, sparkle dust, etc. - cause the cotton candy to melt. I have no empirical scientific evidence of this, so I believe I must venture down to The Corn Popper (the local, year-round cotton candy seller) and test my theory. I'll let you know. :)

Awesome cakes, everybody! The Dharma Portable Cake cracked me up as well. They're all very cool though! Makes me wish I'd had a Finale party just so I could serve cake, which is not to say that I'm that creative. :-)

Oh! I forgot to mention: you can put a lot of things through the spinner. If you want colors, mix some cool-aid powder into the sugar. Or, if you want to torment someone, make the "cotton candy" entirely out of unsweetened cool-aid mix. Funny!

I see awesome cupcakes, awesome cookies, awesome "cake" cake, plus some other stuff that looks too much like what it's meant to represent and too little like cake for me to be able to eat it. :X Realistic depictions of mud and grass? Nope, gothchiq is squeamish! lol

Since I have never seen more than about two minutes of LOST at a time, I have NO idea what's going on...the Dharma items creep me out though. They're well done, but they creep me out. (Any fellow anime geeks reminded of NERV? or of Paradigm City?)

I'm almost curious enough to watch back episodes of the show. Almost. The whole 'plane crash' thing scares me to death; I used to work for an airline and watching footage of actual crashes was pretty traumatic. (You should have seen the first time I watched 'Cast Away.' Yikes.)

Thanks for the "sweet" nod to the end of Lost. As a fan, I *loved* these cakes! Haven't seen yesterday's finale (PVRed it... and trying to decide whether to deny it's ending by not watching it for a while, or to give in and find out how they tied up all the threads).

Amazing how amateurs can be better than so many professionals. And how even the cakes that weren't "professional" quality captured the essence of the show so well you don't notice any flaws until the third of fourth time you stare at the cake (in admiration). The details and passion were amazing!!!

PS That last cake-- I agree with Anonymous @ 12:06 that it's probably Timbits (doughnut holes from Tim Hortons) rather than actual croquembouche. Canadians are usually pretty good at spotting, and descending upon, Timbits :)

Thanks for posting my VERY amateur cakes. What an honor! I had fun making them and sharing them with my viewing party friends. Love your site and love that you dedicated a Sunday Sweets to LOST! Your blog always makes me laugh. Keep up the good work!

Love the cakes! My sister, who is only watches when i have the episodes on, made a smoke monster cake. She informed us all at our lost watching party that if our questions were answered she would tell us what was in the cake. since we agreed not all the questions were answered, she only said that the cake was not mint.... and left us all guessing much as the producers did. -- pictures to come if i can find one from before we tore into the delicious non mint chocolate goodness.

"I met a traveller from an antique landWho said; two vast and trunkless legs of stoneStand in the dessert. Near them, on the sand,Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,Tell that the sculptor well those passions readWich still survive stamped on these lifeless things,"